A dumper truck driver was killed when his vehicle went over the edge of a spoil heap which had not been made safe and he was crushed, a coroner was told today.

Sean Carter had been told to use another heap on the site and to dump at ground level, the inquest at Gloucestershire Coroner's Court heard.

The county's Deputy Coroner Caroline Saunders was told that part of the spoil heap Sean used had been removed by an excavator some days before but the operator had not had time to make it safe, leaving an almost vertical side instead of the normal 45 degree slope.

Mr Carter 29, of Great Mead, Chippenham, was declared dead at the scene of the incident on a David Wilson Homes site in Cirencester, on May 31 last year.

A pathologist who carried out a postmortem found that he had suffered extensive damage to his head and chest and had almost certainly died instantly.